Parliament passes JPC probe into chopper scam

After the secrecy clause is over, the Italian authorities will share information, he said.

Taking part in the debate, Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley said the JPC in the chopper scam was an "exercise in futility" and "diversionary tactic".

The noted lawyer contended that the case involved aspects such as extradition of accused foreigners and custodial interrogation and the JPC can have "none of these powers", leaving it ineffective.

Derek O'brien (TMC) said the JPC was a "political cover up" while Shivanand Tiwari (JD-U) said his party would agree for a JPC only if it was headed by the Leader of Opposition.

D Raja (CPI) asked the government to defer the formation of JPC as many of the Opposition parties had expressed their opposition to it.

Earlier, Antony said AgustaWestland has denied the charges against it in its reply to the show cause notice but the Defence Ministry "does not believe their reply".

He said two inquiries including one by Italian prosecutors and one by the CBI was going on and the Opposition argument that Indian government was not acting was a "flawed one".

"Your argument is that we are not doing anything. Italian judiciary, independent of Italian government, are pursuing prosecution. Our investigation is a preliminary stage. They are in final stage, result of entire Italian inquiry will come now," the minister said.

The Defence Minister said his Ministry's experience with the CBI inquiries was good as on basis of its investigations, a case was registered in the Ordnance Factory Board scam and six defence firms were blacklisted including four global defence firms.

"We blacklisted six firms including four powerful global firms. One of the firms has branches in 100 countries... We have shown no mercy and cancelled their contracts and blacklisted them for ten years," he said.

... contd.

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